The battle over the Sacramento Kings has reached the final stages, with ownership committee meetings set for Wednesday in Manhattan to frame the debate for a final decision on the team's fate later this month: Sacramento or Seattle? What's it going to be?

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has been leading the city's efforts to keep the team from leaving -- first, for Anaheim and now, for Seattle -- every step of the way during this three-year ordeal. As chance would have it, Johnson had a wedding to attend in New York over the weekend, so fittingly, the old point guard has been in the city for days, just waiting for what could be his final chance to save his city's team.

"It's a culmination of a three-year saga," Johnson told CBSSports.com Monday night. "We've fought so hard as a community because this is our only basketball team. And you don't want anybody taking away something that's yours when you've done what you needed to do to keep a team there. And it's bigger than basketball for us. It's about jobs, it's about civic pride, it's about an opportunity to revitalize our downtown area.

"It's a defining moment for our city," he said.

Given the unprecedented circumstances over the Kings' fate, the NBA has convened a meeting of a special joint committee of owners -- the combined relocation and advisory finance committees -- to set the stage for a final vote at the full Board of Governors meeting April 18-19.

Johnson and the proposed ownership group from Sacramento will make a presentation, as will representatives from Seattle and the group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, who have an executed purchase agreement to buy a majority stake in the team and move it to Seattle as early as next season.

The Hansen group also has put in a bid for the 7 percent of minority shares in the Kings that are in bankruptcy, potentially strengthening its position. But a league source told CBSSports.com that the other minority investors have the right of first refusal, and will be exercising that right before Wednesday. Those shares will be part of Sacramento's proposal, not Seattle's.